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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/30023442">a natural progression of events</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephonerights/pseuds/persephonerights'>persephonerights</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>dimension 20 alphabet 2021 [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dimension 20 (Web Series), Fantasy High</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Other characters mentioned - Freeform, S: Sacrifice, a look at how kristen reached the point where she would sacrifice herself with no hesitation, kind of 5+1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 23:01:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,458</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/30023442</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephonerights/pseuds/persephonerights</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kristen thought she knew what the word sacrifice meant, she had sacrificed quite a lot, a few times. She thought she knew what the word meant, and then she was bleeding out on the ground of the Nightmare King’s Forest. <br/>Prompt fill for S: Sacrifice for Dimension 20 Alphabet</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>dimension 20 alphabet 2021 [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2186469</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>a natural progression of events</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>there are mention of violence but no graphic descriptions! nothing that goes beyond canon</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>i. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kristen had been excited for this slumber party all week, someone at school had finally invited her to one! Since she was known as the chosen one, everyone treated her like she was other than them, they treated her almost like an adult. Even the adults at church.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She liked going to church, a lot, but she only got to hang out with adults and her younger brothers there. It was okay because she knew she had an important job, but sometimes she wanted friends? And now soon she would have friends, since someone had finally invited her to a slumber party. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When Kristen got home from school she threw her backpack down and raced upstairs to grab the bag she had already packed for tonight. Her mom called out behind her, “Kristen, honey! Where are you going?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kristen stopped by the entrance to her room and yelled back, “To get my bag? For the slumber party?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh sweetheart was that today? I don’t think you can go.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?” Kristen walked back downstairs, standing at the bottom of them, just looking at her mom. “Why not?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her mom was standing there with her little brother on her hip, “Me and your dad have to do something at church tonight and we’d really hope you’d take care of Buck tonight.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But mom, you promised. This is my first slumber party, someone finally invited me to one.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey now, you’ll get invited to plenty more. Besides, me and your father have to do </span>
  <em>
    <span>church</span>
  </em>
  <span> things, sometimes we all have to make sacrifices for Helio. You can go without one sleepover,” her mom had gone from sounding understanding to sounding kind of...mad. That Kristen was arguing with her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So Kristen simply hung her head, and gave in, “Yeah of course. I can take care of Bucky tonight.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her mom went back to smiling, and young Kristen couldn’t explain, but in a few years she’d understand what was really going on, “Thanks baby.”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>ii</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She didn’t get invited to anymore sleepovers. Not that she really expected to. She knew what she was doing when she agreed to take care of Bucky. But that’s what family does, or at least that’s what her parents told her. And Kristen wanted to be a good big sister, so she did what they said. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Maybe she wouldn’t have to not hang out with people to do church things, or babysit her brothers anymore, since now she would be in high school. Kristen’s parents had tried to convince her to just stick to going to school with all her church friends but she said no - if she went to Aguefort she could save people through adventures </span>
  <em>
    <span>and</span>
  </em>
  <span> convert them, saving their souls. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When she told her parents this they both smiled at her, her mom pushed some of her hair behind her ear, “We knew you were going to do great things Kristen. Look at you, sacrificing your high school experience to make sure other people get saved. Helio must be so proud of you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kristen heard the word Helio and thought, </span>
  <em>
    <span>but not you?</span>
  </em>
  <span> but she was 14, not stupid, and didn’t say that part out loud. Her parents just wanted her to be safe, and not get distracted by the non-Helioc kids at school, which wouldn’t happen. Kristen loved Helio and she knows he loves her, why else would she be able to heal people?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thanks mom,” Kristen said, “that means a lot to me.” She had gotten really good at smiling even when she didn’t get what she wanted. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>iii.</span>
  </em>
  
</p>
<p>
  <span>On her very first day of high school, Kristen died fighting a giant corn monster, met Helio, learned he’s a frat boy and maybe she’s following the wrong god, and was brought back to life by her principal sacrificing his and the guidance counselor’s life. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Despite </span>
  <em>
    <span>knowing</span>
  </em>
  <span> her parents were wrong, Kristen kind of understood their worry about her going to Aguefort now. She knew they’re wrong again when they didn't let her buy any books about other religions. If her religion was so good, why couldn’t she read about other religions, or about what her religion had done in the past? </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kristen had many sleepless nights after that - thinking about Heaven, worrying about her friends, reading her world religions book under the covers with a flashlight. It was already rough, and then Tracker kissed her. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It felt like something had broken, inside of her. That felt like the wrong word but she didn’t know how else to word it. She had spent so long ignoring how she felt about other girls, because if she felt that way about them she was wrong. And bad. Except maybe she wasn’t. Some people didn’t think that made you good or bad. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Learning about other religions, and herself, made her feel like was...giving something up. Her sanity maybe? Her family? But were either of those things worth keeping if she was</span>
  <em>
    <span> wrong</span>
  </em>
  <span>? Or if her parents made her feel like there was something inherently wrong with her?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ignoring it wasn’t working anymore. She loved her new friends, but they did make it a little hard to live in denial. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>iv. </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kristen knew a big fight was coming up, she needed to be on her game to help all her friends defeat Kalvaxus, but when she heard her baby brother’s voice in the phone crying out for help she couldn’t just leave him there. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So she gave up her HP, and her spell slots, and she healed her brothers and helped save her parents from the damn lackeys of Kalvaxus. It was hard to see her brothers, and her parents, like that. Hurt. Because of her. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She was still wallowing in her own guilt when her dad looked at her, smiled in relief and said, “So what? You think these guys were illegals?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The illusion was broken, Kristen had given up so much of her life to make her parents lives easier for so long. And here her dad was, saying shit like that. They weren’t worth the sacrifice of dealing with their shit for the rest of her life.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She and Adaine left.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>v.</em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kristen was having one hell of a Spring Break. Fig got possessed, Riz got kidnapped, Fabian almost died, Gilear </span>
  <em>
    <span>has</span>
  </em>
  <span> died (a few times), her and Tracker got into a fight, and now she was able to see a horrible demon cat who was haunting so many of her friends. And she was the only one able to heal them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When the Bad Kids had finally managed to get into the Nightmare King’s Forest they tried to find all the things needed to heal each other, all of their friends were taken. Tracker turned into a werewolf via a fake moon right in front of her, almost attacking her. If that wasn’t bad enough, now that damn demon cat was ripping her and Riz apart from the inside out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They were running on borrowed time, and they both knew it. They hadn’t even gotten to make the tincture and Kristen only had one Greater Restoration. She reached for Riz on instinct. No one was dying in front of her today. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kalina lost her shit, which made Kristen happy. If she was going to die here, she might as well get some enjoyment out of it. Riz wanted to leave, but Kristen </span>
  <em>
    <span>needed</span>
  </em>
  <span> him to get the tincture materials. There was no way she was losing Tracker, not after they had made up and understood each other on a deeper level. She couldn’t get the image of Tracker shifting against her will out of her mind. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Pushing through the pain, Kristen was able to make it with Riz to see their other friends. Kalina offered her a deal, the technology for your life. What a joke. Kristen knew that Kalina wouldn’t keep a fucking promise.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Fig saved her, flying her out of the forest. All of this was Kristen’s fault. She should’ve been better, they should’ve taken the safer route, and even though she wasn’t dead, it didn’t feel that way. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>+</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The one thing Kristen wouldn’t sacrifice was her morals. She had spent too long building them up. She had spent too long separating herself from the toxicity from her family and the Helioc church to ever go back. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then Galicaea lied to her, straight to her face. Trying to trick her. She was so </span>
  <em>
    <span>sick and fucking tired</span>
  </em>
  <span> of being manipulated. By her parents, by the church, by Kalina, and now by this trio of gods? One of which killed her own sister? Get fucked. So she punched Helio. And they took her spell slots.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She came to on the forest floor, not even alive, but it felt worth it. </span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i really hope you liked this! any kudos and comments are appreciated &lt;3 i'm trying to post every day for Dimension 20 alphabet on my tumblr @gukgaksupremacy!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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